Which Global Talent endorsing body fits my job title?

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Why your job title is not enough on its own

The endorsing bodies publish lists of the roles and disciplines they cover, and some areas appear on more than one list. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science are the clearest example: they are on the Tech Nation list of technical skills, on the Royal Society computer science list and on the Royal Academy of Engineering computing list. Which endorsing body assesses you turns on two questions: are you building or running products, or producing research; and where do you do the work?

• Building or running digital products in-house at a product-led technology company: Tech Nation
• Producing research, with a PhD or equivalent research experience: the research endorsing body for your discipline
• Graphic, brand, industrial or service design that is not digital: the Design Business Association

Data and AI

Data scientists, data engineers and AI engineers

The Tech Nation list of technical skills names experienced data scientists and data engineers, and artificial intelligence, natural language processing and machine learning experts. If your work is building models, pipelines or AI features for a product, Tech Nation is usually the endorsing body. If your main output is research, such as papers, patents or new methods, and you have a PhD or equivalent research experience, the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering both list these disciplines.

• Tech Nation looks for in-house work at a company whose main revenue comes from its own digital product or platform
• It does not consider consultancy, outsourcing, service delivery or systems administration suitable
• For the research route, the Royal Academy of Engineering describes equivalent research experience as at least three years of research where you were the intellectual drive behind a project

Software and product

Software engineers and product managers

Principal software engineers, experienced front-end, back-end and mobile developers, DevOps engineers and hardware engineers are on the Tech Nation technical list. Experienced product managers are on its business list. Business skills count only for in-house work at product-led digital technology companies, not at agencies, outsourcers or marketing firms. Managing large corporate teams is not considered suitable on its own.

Design

Designers: digital or physical?

Experienced UX/UI designers are on the Tech Nation technical list. The Design Business Association, which assesses design applications through Arts Council England, lists UX/UI design and digital design as Tech Nation's remit, and its product design entry excludes digital product design. Graphic design, brand design, product and industrial design for mass manufacture, and service design are among the disciplines the Design Business Association lists.

Research roles

Engineers, clinicians and economists

For science, engineering, humanities, social science and medicine, the Immigration Rules require you to be an active researcher in an academic, industry or government research institution. Industry describes where the research happens; it does not replace research. A senior engineer or clinician without research outputs is unlikely to meet this test, however experienced.

Next step

If your role fits two endorsing bodies

You apply to one endorsing body. Choose the one whose field matches your role, then check that your strongest evidence answers its criteria directly. Do not choose an endorsing body because its criteria look easier: each endorsing body assesses you only against its own field. If you are unsure, the eligibility check asks about your role and evidence and suggests where to start.